George Perles: “Chuck Noll saw me as a teacher and that was important to him. I saw him as a determined man and an outstanding leader.”
Fred Anderson: “George Perles, my first NFL coach, I remember how he would tailor our gameplan to take away what the opponent did best offensively. We would eliminate their best plays which forced them into their junk plays. Amazing how that works if everyone executes.”
Jim MIller: “George Perles modeled Michigan State after Chuck Noll and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Our practices were just what the Steelers did back during their four Super Bowl run when George was defensive coordinator. Our uniforms were even modeled after the Steelers down to the stickered emblem only on one side of the helmet.”
Gary Dunn: “On my first day, Coach Perles told the rookies we were practicing headbutts – where defensive linemen take on the offensive linemen. He asked who wanted to start. I said I did – and he said great! He said I was going to break the record for the most headbutts in one day. The I realized I was the dummy. He had me be the offensive lineman! Joe went first and he had a bad shoulder so he went at half-speed and took it easy on me. Then it was L.C.’s turn. He was tall and lanky – I thought I could get underneath him and could take him. The vets were yelling at me – “Watch the cape!”. So I fired off and L.C. jumped to the side and I went headfirst into the turf. L.C. just looked at me and said “Welcome to the NFL rookie.”
Charles Davis: “In the film session that week, Coach Perles went over that play a number of times. He told Joe that I saved his ass that play. All the guys looked at me and I just looked down! He told Joe that if he did what he told him to do he would have made that tackle for a loss.”
Dan Radakovich: “We had five centers on that team. Peterson, Webster, Clack, Kolb and Mansfield all played center. We’d screw around in practice and have our left tackle line up at center. It would drive Coach Perles crazy- he’d get so upset. We never did that in a game but you could – creating unbalanced lines would be terrific.”
John Banaszak: “From George Perles I learned that the game demands toughness.”
Jack Deloplaine: “Me and Cliff Stoudt were on the practice squad and they clocked us pretty good after a loss. We had full scrimmages on Wednesdays and Thursdays even, and Perles would get on the defensive guys after a loss in practice, so they’d clobber us. I got clotheslined more than once”